Two Flat Landers, Colorado Mountain Passes on an F800GS and 640 Adventure.

Hi Yall! My buddy Chris (child) and I (Oliver) just did a trip into Colorado with our bikes trying to find the cool dirt passes and mountain views. We had been thinking about riding this area for a while and did a bunch of research (drooling over ride reports and pictures). For a couple guys from the flat Texas plains this ride was epic! Thanks to a lot of the Colorado natives and others such as Geek and their reports, tracks and pictures that helped us plan our route and enjoy our stay.

I can tell you that we both learned a lot about riding and our own personal limits. I think our style of riding balances each other well. Chris is more technical dirt oriented while I am more adventure dirt oriented.

Honestly, we were slacking off on planning our exact routes because the trip date moved up and we were both busy. When we were ready to go we had the gear sorted but I only had a couple GPS tracks stored in my GPS and no solid routes. Luckily the Colorado natives were very helpful and we procured some awesome books that directed us to the “must do” activities.

This report is going to contain tons of pictures, videos and maps. I recorded our tracks on my Garmin 276C each day so we can import them into Google Earth. I am going to share our tracks through Chris’ FTP server so you can follow our exact route.


NEW: DOWNLOAD THE FULL 5 DAYS OF TRACKS HERE: (right click and "save link as")

http://www.seestoryrun.com/gallery/_20100810coloradorr/files/colorado-tracks.zip



Here is a map of our complete route for the days we were on the passes. Our base camp was the South Mineral Campground outside of Silverton. I can’t recommend this campground enough; the people and location were awesome!





Here are some pictures to help get everyone in the mood for a Colorado ride report! Chris will be posting a lot of his pics and the videos he has. We wanted to take you all with us on this ride so we always considered our own desires when we view ride reports… Lots of pictures, maps, trail descriptions, etc.

This is me (Oliver) on my F800GS



This is Chris (child) on his 640 Adventure

Hey guys my crew and I saw you guys at Black Bear Pass...Remember...going the wrong way.... on accident of course. I'm pretty sure we won't make that mistake again since the long arm of the law was waiting for us when we got to the top. Hope you have a good ride. Take care.

Hey Dude! Man that really sucks they were waiting for ya. I know there was a group of two riders who shot up the pass before you two, they were really flying and had obviously done it several times before.

Did you get fined or just a slap on the wrist? How come you didn't wheelie past the fuzz? Were they tipped off by some hippie hiker?

Here is the last view we had of yall, mighty impressive I should say! It was all I could do to keep Chris from following you back up the pass!

The police?!

Here's a video of someone in your group going up (i think the 2nd in your group)

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Awesome... needed some proof we were there. To busy worring about how we were were going to get up the dang thing rather than taking pictures. I know for sure the two other guys before us did get a fine, because the were locals and should know better...we were just idoits, but I will take the slap on the wrist anyday.

Cool video, now I see where my front end bounced to the outside.....Not exactly where I wanted to be.....Thx for posting the video and pics guys

Well let’s start off this ride report and head over to Colorado!
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Chris and I spent a few days making sure our bikes were sorted and we had all our gear. Mostly the usual stuff such as re-jetting the KTM, new tires, nut and bolt check etc. :eek1

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I had a long list of stuff I usually take on weekend rides but we expanded it to include extra items I don’t usually carry. Being able to take a truck was nice and allowed us to have a few more creature comforts at the base camp, such as a small charcoal grill, an axe, a pop up cover (which saved our bacon many times in the rain).
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Here is Chris making sure the bikes are secure right before we head out from my place. We left on Friday evening with plans to make it to Amarillo from Dallas and stay overnight.
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Those plans didn’t work out and we decided to drive throughout the night and head strait for Colorado! Here is Chris napping inside his pillow at around 4am.

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So we had planned on leaving right after work, say 7 pm AT THE LATEST...

...10pm the night before and this was the state of my KTM.



Needless to say I was up slightly late getting the bike ready; that combined with my boss trying to milk all of the last minute work out of me he could and we left DFW a few hours later than planned. No worries, we're young and full of piss and vinegar.

Sleeping inside your pillow case is a stroke of brilliance my friend (i was just informed that it was not me who found the idea, but my buddy and I am a thief, sorry dave) stumbled upon a few years ago while on one of life's numerous road trips. It keeps the bright headlights (or sun depending on time of day) out of your face wonderfully while keeping the pillow from wondering away from your head as you squirm for comfort.

Saturday morning we started to get into the mountains in New Mexico when the sun was coming up. We had passed the boring flatness of Texas and eastern NM in the dark and Colorado was getting close!


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New Mexico really isn’t that bad, there were lots of cool plateaus and desert scenery.
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We were getting really hungry since we hadn’t had anything to eat last night except flaming hot cheetos and energy drinks. This roadside café looked popular and we stopped in for some awesome eggs and pork!
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It was the local hangout.
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Finally we are in Colorado! We drive through the mountains and start on the famous Million Dollar Highway (550). Even with the fully loaded truck we are having a blast.

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We start down a small road called Old Lime Creek. The road is nice but bumpy with the truck. I’m sure with the bikes we could fly down this but we decide to turn around and find another campsite.
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We take a short hike to a waterfall and quickly discover how thin the air is. It’s still awesome to be in Colorado and escape the 100+ F temps back in Dallas!
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You didn't ride the Million Dollar Highway? My dad, brother, and I were just there for our first long trip together ever and had a blast rolling through the mountains from NM up to CO.

Hi Killstar, we did get to ride some of the Million Dollar Highway after we got to camp. The roads were amazing and I was drooling over the twisties and awesome elevation changes. I could see Chris cringe every time I mention highway riding so we stuck mostly to dirt roads but we road all of 550 from Silverton to Ouray on our way to certain mountain passes. The first day when we arrived (same day as the pics above) we were pumped with energy and wanted to get the bikes out and check functionality. At one point Chris was sorting a stalling issue and I took off towards Silverton and did a bit of 550 before returning to camp.

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Silverton! The town is in sight as we round the bend on highway 550. It’s amazing that people live in these picturesque valleys at high altitudes. Silverton will be the closest town to our base camp. Food and gas are expensive but at least there are some good places to eat when we are too tired to cook over the camp fire.
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The famous train between Silverton and Durango was hanging out at the information center getting ready to go back to Durango.
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We stopped by the information center and talked to two nice old ladies who helped us find a couple books and maps of the local mountain passes. These books were invaluable because we hadn’t programmed our routes prior to leaving because there was only enough time to sort the gear and bikes.
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Starting on the road to the South Mineral campground just northwest of Silverton the clouds are ominous. We got to the camp early enough to find a good spot and we rushed to put up the canopy and get some gear out of the truck before it began to rain.
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Camp! It looked like a storm was coming so I immediately pitched my tent just to make sure I would have somewhere dry to sleep.
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Little did I know Chris had brought everything he could stuff in the truck and a pop up canopy (definitely the most valuable item all trip). His gear exploded over the table and we rode the bikes into the campsite. This particular site was awesome because what you see in the picture is actually a short ways off the main loop and we are tucked into an area where we can’t see most other campers.
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Here is our view on the main loop. The truck will stay here unless we need heavy supplies from town. We can see the tree line from the camp, we are at 10,000 ft.
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Now lets get to some riding! After setting up camp we wanted to get the bikes off the truck and make sure everything was running fine. Chris took a spin around the camp site.
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No sooner did he return to camp and he is already breaking stuff. Must have been the lack of sleep… I think the root grabbed his wheel when he wasn’t looking.
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No worries, we fix the canopy with a splint and some zip ties. Zip ties have to be the most versatile and invaluable survival/daily use equipment on the planet!
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We decide to head up one of the road outside of camp. This road goes to the Bandora mine. It starts immediately outside of camp, winding through a forest and bursting out on the mountainside about the tree line. There are a good bit of rocks and I find myself well ahead of Chris and wondering where he is. I eventually turn around and Chris is having bike problems, we decide to roll back down to camp.
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Chris heads back to get some tools and I tell him I will take a quick run down the smooth dirt road to 550.
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I feel great riding the bike in this crisp air, I decide to go further. I head up 550 back past Silverton and up to one of the higher points. My F800GS is running great but is lacking some power, seems fine though. On the way back to camp it starts to get dark and gets cold really fast, I casually flip on the heated grips… I love my BMW!
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When I got back to camp I was not too surprised to see several parts of Chris' bike and his tool bag scattered on the gravel floor. At this point he thought the issues were electrical because he had installed some heated grips before we left and they were not working correctly. I subscribe to the mantra of no major changes before long trips.






The rain finally caught up with us.






Everyone is back safe and sound huddled under the canopy. Is it going to be like this every day? Note: My bike looks like its about to fall, the rain was softening the ground but I was too tired to find a rock at the moment.

We had to prepare the wet wood under the canopy to start a fire. Chris likes to set up "one match" fires but it would be quite a challenge this week. Later on in the week we had enough of the wet wood and began to resort to "one match with a paper towel and oil" fires.









I'm assuming this is some sort of rain dance. Maybe he was trying to connect with the bike by wearing the fairing... Be the KTM, think like the KTM... If I was a KTM why would I be stalling?

Day 2 (Sunday)


On Sunday I woke up feeling like I had gone 9 rounds with a heavyweight boxer. My head and chest were sore and I couldn't breathe. Just walking to the truck and back felt like I was running a mile. I was definitely in the grips of severe altitude sickness.


The morning was really pretty though...





I spent the day doing this... I felt bad because Chris was ready to ride but he took the opportunity to further sort his bike and took a couple side trips on the local roads. I gave him my SPOT unit to use but there usually were plenty of people on all the roads where we were riding. I tried to choke down as much Pedialite and water as I could and get some rest.